Pure instrumental music is a relatively late development, with notations first appearing in the late 15th century. This CD by Ensemble Leones is dedicated to one of the most important composers of this first instrumental flowering: Josquin Desprez (ca.1450-1521) may have earned his greatest merits as a composer of sacred vocal music, but as a hitherto neglected composer of secular instrumental music, he is to receive due appreciation with this recording.
The core instrumentation chosen by the ensemble for the present recording consists on the one hand of the three- to fourpart string ensemble with viola d'arco, vielle, Renaissance violin and viola da gamba, and on the other hand of a plucked duo with lute or gittern and harp. The quinterne, by the way, is made of 2000-year-old wood that was found in Switzerland in 2001. The composer Arvo Pärt was so enthusiastic about this find that he composed a piece especially for this instrument. Marc Lewon plays it on this instrument for the first time here.